Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Book Review~ The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel & Hans Bluedorn

Disclaimer~I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.




Have you ever wanted to find a fun and engaging way for your students to learn about logical fallacies? Have you wanted them to be able to recognize bad reasoning before they head out into the "real" world?  
If you have then you need to discover The Fallacy Detective book from Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn.




For the past 15 years, The Fallacy Detective has been the best-selling text/workbook for teaching students about logic and logical fallacies. 



About The Fallacy Detective
  • Publisher: Christain Logic
  • Paperback: 262 pages
"Can learning logic be fun? With The Fallacy Detective, it appears that it can be. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to improve his reasoning skills."
~ Tim Challies, Curriculum Reviewer


What is a Fallacy, you may be wondering? 
A fallacy is an error in logic, a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking.



The Fallacy Detective helps students learn to spot common errors in reasoning. The Fallacy Detective is geared for students ages 12 and up. The book is a handy way for readers to learn basic reasoning skills and be able to use them right away. The book included popular cartoons and humorous examples to help teach students to recognize bad reasoning. The book is written in a friendly writing style making this book an easy read. The Fallacy Detective includes a workbook section and a fun game to play. The answers are provided at the end of the book.
 The book contains seven sections and thirty-eight lessons.




Introduction: What is a Fallacy?

The Inquiring Mind
Lesson 1- Exercise Your Mind
Lesson 2- Love to Listen
Lesson 3- Opposing Viewpoints

Avoiding the Question
Lesson 4- Red Herring Fallacy
Lesson 5- Recognize Red Herrings
Lesson 6- Special Pleading
Lesson 7- Ad Hominem Attack
Lesson 8- Genetic Fallacy
Lesson 9- Tu Quoque
Lesson 10- Faulty Appeal to Authority
Lesson 11- Appeal to the People
Lesson12- Straw Man

Making Assumptions
Lesson 13- The Story of Aroup Goupta
Lesson 14- Assumptions
Lesson 15- Circular Reasoning
Lesson 16- Equivocation 
Lesson 17- Loaded Questions
Lesson 18- Slippery Slope
Lesson 19- Part-to-Whole
Lesson 20- Whole-to-Part
Lesson 21- Either-Or 

Statistical Fallacies
Lesson 22- What is a Generalization?
Lesson 23- Hasty Generalization
Lesson 24- What is an Analogy?
Lesson 25- Weak Analogy
Lesson 26- Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
Lesson 27- Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc in Statistics 
Lesson 28- Proof by Lack of Evidence 

Propaganda
Lesson 29- What is Propaganda? 
Lesson 30- Appeal to Fear
Lesson 31- Appeal to Pity
Lesson 32- Bandwagon
Lesson 33- Exigency
Lesson34- Repetition 
Lesson 35- Transfer
Lesson 36- Snob Appeal 
Lesson 37- Appeal to Tradition and Appeal to Hi-Tech
Lesson 38- Find Some Propagnade on Your Own

The Fallacy Detective Game




Answer Key to Exercises 

Each lesson ends with an exercise. Each exercise contains about 8-12 questions. The answers to the questions can be found at the back of the book.

Review:

In today's day and age, I feel this book/workbook is essential for students. Over the past few years, we have been bombarded with propaganda, mob mentality, fear, and coercion. Our children need to understand how these tactics are used against them every day. It is important that they see how things are presented and it is even more important for them to stand up and make their own educated decisions. 



When I was reading this book, I was immediately brought back to a question my mom would ask when we wanted to do what everyone else was doing, "If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?"
Of course not, I wasn't crazy or stupid. When she'd asked that, it made me stop and think (at least most of the time). I still wanted the designer jeans!
The Fallacy Detective is a great introduction to logical fallacies and bad reasoning. It's a great book to help students begin to learn how to apply critical thinking skills. I do believe and more in-depth logic thinking course is needed for older students in high school or college. We may not have agreed with everything presented in the book, but The Fallacy Detective was a fun, engaging start to learning about logic.


Learn more about The Fallacy Detective by Hans Bluedorn on Social Media


The Review was allowed to review two different books from Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn: The Fallacy Detective and Archer and Zowie.
Want to discover more about these two books?
Click on the link below!



Till Next Time,
Monique






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